THE DETERIORATION OF FIRE-KILLED WHITE SPRUCE BY WOOD-BORING INSECTS IN NORTHERN SASKATCHEWAN

1945 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 168-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. A. Richmond ◽  
R. R. Lejeune

The problem of determining the rate of deterioration from the attacks of wood-boring insects on white spruce saw timber and pulpwood killed and damaged by fire is of considerable importance to foresters, owners and operators. In order that salvage operations may be undertaken promptly to utilize the timber, it is necessary to be able to determine values soon after the damage and to make plans to harvest first those classes of timber subject to the most rapid depreciation, leaving until later those trees least subject to value loss.This investigation initiated in 1941 with the early observation of the prevalence of wood-borers in fire burned areas of white spruce on the Carrot River watershed in Saskatchewan, was followed by intensive investigation during the summer months of 1942 to 1944.The investigation and report will be of great value to those concerned with the salvage utilization of fire-killed and damaged spruce and this work warrants the highest praise for those who undertook this valuable study. Extensive forest fires in 1942 damaged many spruce stands in Manitoba and Saskatchewan which totalled millions of board feet of saw timber and thousands of cords of pulpwood. Due to war-time demand and the high prices prevailing, it was possible and practical to produce and market a high percentage of the accessible stands during the three to four years subsequent to the fire damage.

2005 ◽  
Vol 83 (9) ◽  
pp. 1096-1105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Om P. Rajora ◽  
Ishminder K. Mann ◽  
Yong-Zhong Shi

White spruce ( Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) is a characteristic primary species of the Canadian boreal forest region, where it occurs in conifer-dominated and mixedwood forest types. Genetic diversity and population structure of white spruce may differ between the conifer-dominated and mixedwood forest types owing to the inherent differences in stand structure and dynamics. The objective of our study was to determine genetic diversity and population structure of pristine white spruce stands as they occur in conifer-dominated and mixedwood forest types at the EMEND (Ecosystem Management Emulating Natural Disturbance) study sites in northern Alberta. Nuclear microsatellite DNA markers were used to examine genetic diversity and population structure of 16 pristine natural old-growth (≥100 years) white spruce stands (subpopulations) of fire origin; 8 from conifer-dominated and 8 from neighboring mixedwood forest types. High levels of genetic diversity were observed, as expected. The genetic diversity and genetic constitution of white spruce were similar between the conifer-dominated and mixedwood forest types. Most of the genetic variation resided within subpopulations, with only about 2% genetic differentiation detected among 16 subpopulations as well as among 8 subpopulations within the same forest type. The mean genetic distances among subpopulations within and between the forest types were similar. Our study suggests that white spruce genetic resources are similar in the conifer-dominated and mixedwood forest types located in the EMEND study area in northern Alberta, and it provides the benchmarks for determining and monitoring the genetic diversity impacts of forest harvesting and forest fires.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme Alexandre Stecher Justini Pinto ◽  
Mats Niklasson ◽  
Nina Ryzhkova ◽  
Igor Drobyshev

AbstractThe Sala fire in the Västmanland County of central Sweden that burned about 14,000 ha in 2014 has been the largest fire recorded in the modern history of Sweden. To understand the long-term fire history of this area, we dendrochronologically dated fire scars on Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) trees (live and deadwood) to reconstruct the fire cycle and fire occurrence in the area affected by the 2014 fire. We identified 64 fire years, using a total of 378 pine samples. The earliest reconstructed fire dated back to 1113 AD. The spatial reconstruction extended over the period of 1480–2018 AD. Lower levels of fire activity (fire cycle, FC = 43 years, with the central 90% of the distribution limited by 35 to 57 years) dominated in the earlier period (1480–1690 AD) that was followed by a strong decrease in fire activity since 1700 (FC = 403 years, with 90% of the distribution being within 149 to 7308 years), with a fire-free period between 1756 and 2014. Sala area, therefore, features the earliest known onset of fire suppression in Scandinavia. The high demand for timber during the peak in mining activities in the study area around the 1700–1800s, accompanied by passive fire suppression policies, were possibly the main drivers of the decline in fire activity. Superposed epoch analysis (SEA) did not show significant departures in the drought proxy during the ten years with the largest area burned between 1480 and1690. It is unclear whether the result is due to the relatively small area sampled or an indication that human controls of fires dominated during that period. However, significant departures during the following period with low fire activity (1700–1756), which just preceded the last fire-free period, suggested that the climate became an increasingly important driver of fire during the onset of the suppression period. We speculate that the lack of major firebreaks, the homogenization of forests, and the lack of burned areas with low fuel loads might contribute to the occurrence of the exceptionally large 2014 fire in Sala.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 5061-5078 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. T. Michaletz ◽  
E. A. Johnson ◽  
W. E. Mell ◽  
D. F. Greene

Abstract. The existence of non-serotinous, non-sprouting species in fire regimes where serotiny confers an adaptive advantage is puzzling, particularly when these species recruit poorly from soil seed banks or from burn edges. In this paper, white spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss) was used to show how the timing of fire relative to seed development may permit non-serotinous species to recolonize burned areas from the aerial seed banks of fire-killed trees. To estimate survival of seeds within closed cones during crown fires, cone heating was simulated using a one-dimensional conduction model implemented in a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics fire behavior model. To quantify the area burned when germinable seed would be contained within closed cones during a mast year, empirical fire occurrence and seed development (germinability and cone opening) data were compared for multiple locations across the white spruce range. Approximately 12% of cones contained viable seed following crown fire simulations (0.072 m s−1 mean spread rate; 9147 kW m−1 mean intensity), and roughly half of the historical area burned resulted from fires that occurred when closed cones would contain germinable seed. Together, these results suggest that non-serotinous species may recolonize burned areas from in situ aerial seed banks, and that this may be an important cause of their existence in fire regimes to which they otherwise seem poorly suited.


1995 ◽  
Vol 6 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 109-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bengt Ehnström ◽  
Bo Långström ◽  
Claeus Hellqvist

The beetle colonization of fire-damaged trees was studied in seven reserves, which were established in burned forests in south and central Sweden, following extensive forest fires in the summer of 1992. In the spring of 1993, burned pine trees displayed a large range in fire damage from virtually undamaged ones to trees killed by the fire. Spruces were more sensitive than pine, and few fire-damaged spruces had some green foliage left. The pine shoot beetle, Tomicus piniperda (Linnaeus) was the main colonizer of pine trees, occurring at all sites, but altogether in only one-third of the trees. On spruce, two bark beetles were common: Polygraphus poligraphus (Linnaeus) was found on nearly all sites and altogether on half of the trees, followed in abundance by Pityogenes chalcographus (Linnaeus). These common species were accompaniedby an assembly of bark and longhorn beetles, commonly occurring on fresh conifer timber. Most of the beetle species clearly preferred the dead or dying trees. However, the species mentioned above as well as Arhopalus rusticus (Linnaeus) also attacked trees with more than half of the foliage left. Three fire-favoured species were observed: Oxypteris (Melanophila) acuminata (Degeer), Sericoda (Agonum) quadripunctata (Degeer) and Pterostichus quadrifoveolatus (Letzner). Line surveys indicated little bark beetle dispersal from the burned areas into surrounding forests. Further studies are needed as the primary colonization of the burned trees was obviously not completed during this first year after the fire.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Libonati ◽  
J. M. C. Pereira ◽  
C. C. Da Camara ◽  
L. F. Peres ◽  
D. Oom ◽  
...  

AbstractBiomass burning in the Brazilian Amazon is modulated by climate factors, such as droughts, and by human factors, such as deforestation, and land management activities. The increase in forest fires during drought years has led to the hypothesis that fire activity decoupled from deforestation during the twenty-first century. However, assessment of the hypothesis relied on an incorrect active fire dataset, which led to an underestimation of the decreasing trend in fire activity and to an inflated rank for year 2015 in terms of active fire counts. The recent correction of that database warrants a reassessment of the relationships between deforestation and fire. Contrasting with earlier findings, we show that the exacerbating effect of drought on fire season severity did not increase from 2003 to 2015 and that the record-breaking dry conditions of 2015 had the least impact on fire season of all twenty-first century severe droughts. Overall, our results for the same period used in the study that originated the fire-deforestation decoupling hypothesis (2003–2015) show that decoupling was clearly weaker than initially proposed. Extension of the study period up to 2019, and novel analysis of trends in fire types and fire intensity strengthened this conclusion. Therefore, the role of deforestation as a driver of fire activity in the region should not be underestimated and must be taken into account when implementing measures to protect the Amazon forest.


Forests ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Donghyun Kim

This study examined the records of forest fire outbreaks and characteristics over the 518 years of the Joseon Dynasty period (1392–1910) through the analysis of major historical records of Korea. The historical books used in this study were 14 major national historical books, and include the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty (朝鮮王朝實錄), the Diaries of the Royal Secretariat (承政院日記), and the literature was examined, centering on official records of the royal palace in the Joseon Dynasty period. The contents of forest fires recorded in the historical record literature include the overviews of outbreak, forest fire types, and forest fire damage. According to the results of analysis of historical records, the largest forest fire damage was in the forest fire that occurred on the east coast in 1672, in which 65 persons died and in the forest fire that occurred in the same area in 1804, in which 61 persons died and 2600 private houses were destroyed by fire. The causes of fire outbreak were shown to be unknown causes in 42 cases, accidental fires in 10 cases, arson in 3 cases, thunder strike in 3 cases, hunting activities in 2 cases, child playing with fire in 1 case, cultivating activities in 1 case, and house fire in 1 case. Forest fire outbreaks were analyzed by region and by season and according to the results, 56% (39 cases) of the forest fires broke out on the east coast and 73% (46 cases) broke out in the spring. Forest fire policies include those for general forests, those for reserved forests, those for prohibited forests, those for capital city forests, those for royal family’s graves, royal ancestral shrine, and placenta chamber, those for hunting grounds such as martial art teaching fields, and relief policies for people in areas damaged by forest fires, forest fire policies for national defense facilities such as beacon fire stations, and burning and burning control policies for pest control. In conclusion, due to the seriousness of forest fires in the Joseon Dynasty period, the royal authority and local administrative agencies made various forest fire prevention policies, policies for stabilization of the people’s livelihood damaged due to forest fires, and methods to manage major facilities in forests.


2012 ◽  
Vol 238 ◽  
pp. 621-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guang Yong Wang ◽  
Xing Qiang Wang ◽  
Guang Wei Liu

A fire performance finite element (FE) model of space grid structures in fire and after fire is proposed, and deformation, stress redistribution, failure modes of grid structures are also studied. The result shows that tensile membrane action arises when the grid is loaded after fire, and the load bearing capacity after fire is reduced by fire damage.


2006 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Castro Rego ◽  
Filipe Xavier Catry

In the management of forest fires, early detection and fast response are known to be the two major actions that limit both fire loss and fire-associated costs. There are several inter-related factors that are crucial in producing an efficient fire detection system: the strategic placement and networking of lookout towers, the knowledge of the fire detection radius for lookout observers at a given location and the ability to produce visibility maps. This study proposes a new methodology in the field of forest fire management, using the widely accepted Fire Detection Function Model to evaluate the effect of distance and other variables on the probability that an object is detected by an observer. In spite of the known variability, the model seems robust when applied to a wide variety of situations, and the results obtained for the effective detection radius (13.4 km for poor conditions and 20.6 km for good conditions) are in general agreement with those proposed by other authors. We encourage the application of the new approach in the evaluation or planning of lookout networks, in addition to other integrated systems used in fire detection.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 2335-2351 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Chang ◽  
Y. Song

Abstract. Biomass burning in tropical Asia emits large amounts of trace gases and particulate matter into the atmosphere, which has significant implications for atmospheric chemistry and climatic change. In this study, emissions from open biomass burning over tropical Asia were evaluated during seven fire years from 2000 to 2006 (1 March 2000–31 February 2007). The size of the burned areas was estimated from newly published 1-km L3JRC and 500-m MODIS burned area products (MCD45A1). Available fuel loads and emission factors were assigned to each vegetation type in a GlobCover characterisation map, and fuel moisture content was taken into account when calculating combustion factors. Over the whole period, both burned areas and fire emissions showed clear spatial and seasonal variations. The size of the L3JRC burned areas ranged from 36 031 km2 in fire year 2005 to 52 303 km2 in 2001, and the MCD45A1 burned areas ranged from 54 790 km2 in fire year 2001 to 148 967 km2 in 2004. Comparisons of L3JRC and MCD45A1 burned areas using ground-based measurements and other satellite data were made in several major burning regions, and the results suggest that MCD45A1 generally performed better than L3JRC, although with a certain degree of underestimation in forest areas. The average annual L3JRC-based emissions were 123 (102–152), 12 (9–15), 1.0 (0.7–1.3), 1.9 (1.4–2.6), 0.11 (0.09–0.12), 0.89 (0.63–1.21), 0.043 (0.036–0.053), 0.021 (0.021–0.023), 0.41 (0.34–0.52), 3.4 (2.6–4.3), and 3.6 (2.8–4.7) Tg yr−1 for CO2, CO, CH4, NMHCs, NOx, NH3, SO2, BC, OC, PM2.5, and PM10, respectively, whereas MCD45A1-based emissions were 122 (108–144), 9.3 (7.7–11.7), 0.63 (0.46–0.86), 1.1 (0.8–1.6), 0.11 (0.10–0.13), 0.54 (0.38–0.76), 0.043 (0.038–0.051), 0.033 (0.032–0.037), 0.39 (0.34–0.47), 3.0 (2.6–3.7), and 3.3 (2.8–4.0) Tg yr−1. Forest burning was identified as the major source of the fire emissions due to its high carbon density. Although agricultural burning was the second highest contributor, it is possible that some crop residue combustion was missed by satellite observations. This possibility is supported by comparisons with previously published data, and this result may be due to the small size of the field crop residue burning. Fire emissions were mainly concentrated in Indonesia, India, Myanmar, and Cambodia. Furthermore, the peak in the size of the burned area was generally found in the early fire season, whereas the maximum fire emissions often occurred in the late fire season.


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